Thursday, March 12, 2015

Will the Charleston County School District spend over $7 million to renovate a high/middle school for a student body that has averaged around 120 for the last decade?

Will CCSD instead spend nearly twice that sum for a new building on the St. James-Santee campus?

In the first instance the district would spend nearly $60,000 per student; the cost per student for the second soars over $100,000 per student.

There has to be a better way--and there is!

McClellanville Constituent Board member Joseph Bowers thinks a new building in a new location is the way to go. Bowers is pitching consolidating the constituent districts for McClellanville and Mount Pleasant to have one district serving all of East Cooper. By consolidating the two constituent districts, Bowers said, enrollment could be more evenly distributed at high schools across East Cooper, allowing for more equitable educational opportunities. “We have a population problem (in McClellanville),” he said. “There is no way there will ever be the population base out here under the circumstances to continue supporting (equitable) education.” But for [Constituent board chair Thomas] Colleton the issue isn’t just about having a new building, it’s about finding a way to break the cycle of poverty of the students in McClellanville, which he feels conditions in the current school only perpetuates. “A new school closer to (Awendaw) could open up the door to more opportunities for students,” he said.

Couldn't have said it better myself. A new high school in Awendaw would solve so many problems.

1 comment:

Jim Isle
said...

Yes, more common sense. Quit dumping millions into schools that have dwindling populations. Why not create a more centralized new high school, on a par with what is already being proposed for the south end of District 2? Why not create a 3rd East Cooper high school? By the time a new full service high school is built in Awendaw, the population of East Cooper will more than fill both proposed new high schools there and in Mt. Pleasant. There is no excuse for putting 4,000 students at Wando.